Media Advisory: Frostpaw the Polar Bear Available for Comment and Photos in Copenhagen

What: The Center for Biological Diversity’s Frostpaw the polar bear, who has already been featured by The New York Times and in numerous media photos while in Copenhagen, will be available for interviews and photographs. Frostpaw will be accompanied by Kassie Siegel, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute and co-author of the report Yes, He Can: President Obama’s Power to Make an International Climate Commitment Without Waiting for Congress.

Background: Two-thirds of all polar bears — including all bears in Alaska — will be extinct by 2050 if current greenhouse gas emissions continue, and the rest of the species will be gone by the end of the century. The Center for Biological Diversity forced the Bush administration to publicly acknowledge, for the first time, the scientific connection between greenhouse gas emissions and species endangerment in response to our petition to gain Endangered Species Act protection for the polar bear. The Center is currently in litigation against the Obama administration regarding its failure to take necessary actions to protect the polar bear from global warming.

Last week, the Center for Biological Diversity released a report, titled Yes, He Can: President Obama’s Power to Make an International Climate Commitment Without Waiting for Congress. The report, which was also the subject of a presentation at a side event last week at the Bella Center, concludes that President Obama need not wait for Congress to act before taking strong action to reduce U.S. emissions. Read the report.

Ms. Siegel and Frostpaw will offer a critique of the current U.S. proposal on the table in Copenhagen, including how the U.S. position would consign polar bears and numerous other species to extinction and result in untold human suffering. The pair will also be available to discuss the opportunities for the United States to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions via existing authorities under the U.S. Clean Air Act rather than the flawed cap-and-trade bills currently pending before Congress.